We started last time with a song, a hymn, Tenderly Calling. I have spoken to a number of people since this was posted who knew of Fanny Crosby. I had never heard of her until I looked up this song. Her story reminds me of Helen Keller, who also refused to be held back by her limitations, very large limitations.

The quote in the subject line above is attributed to Fanny’s grandmother, who raised her, and loved her very, very well. She very much encouraged Fanny to interact with the world, when the natural thing would have been to shrink back. But she also affirmed Fanny’s worth and value.

Fanny was just as precious to God as anyone else. We do not have to be defined by any of our characteristics, or our deficits, no matter how significant they might seem. We were all created in the image of God, and so, we all have immeasurable, inherent value. Sometimes it can feel more true if we just say it more simply:

“There is nothing I could ever do that would cause God to love me any more — and there is nothing I could ever do that would cause Him to love me any less.”

What a great reminder that is. It should cause us to sigh in relief, encouraging us to release ourselves from all the pressure we put on ourselves to perform. We can rest in who we are, right now, in this very moment. We are enough . . . just as we are.

And it should allay our fears that there just might be something we could do that even God could not forgive. Do not many of us fear this very thing deep in our hearts? But it is a lie, one of the ugliest lies of all. Take a deep sigh. Believe. You can never fall beyond His grasp.

As I listen to this song (and I hope you have), the thing which strikes me the most is just how transparent Fanny is about her doubts and internal struggle, and just how great they are. Fanny starts out by saying:

Sometimes when I’m feeling lonesome, and no one on earth seems to care
I’m all by myself in the darkness, with no one and nothing to share
Just when it feels like it’s over, and I’ll never make it alone
I hear the voices of angels, tenderly calling me home

It is so easy in this world to lose our focus and grounding, for us to begin to doubt ourselves. And much of the time it can be triggered by just how easily others tend to forget or even neglect us, for we are all so lost in ourselves.

For Fanny, however, darkness was not only a metaphor, but a very real thing. As I think about it now, being able to see the world, as most of us have always been able to do, keeps us more engaged. You may just be sitting on a park bench, quietly watching the people walk by and the ducks swim in the pond, but being able to see everything, in all its complexity, is a form of engagement.

Think about what it would be like if you could never see the world, but only darkness. How alive would all of your other senses become, how attuned, trying to imagine what’s happening all around you, and what it all looks like, really? And your place in it? How much easier it would be to doubt this. Sight brings all of the seeing people in the world together, they share this visual reality with each other, even when they’re not interacting. But a blind person cannot participate in this. You can’t see any of them. Do any of them even notice you? Think how easy it would be to feel alone.

I don’t have the words for this, but I can feel it, and it doesn’t feel good. I can see how Fanny said: I’m all by myself in the darkness, with no one and nothing to share . . . and just when it feels like it’s over, and I’ll never make it alone. Wow. How honest. How desperate. And do we all not struggle with similar things?

Think about how guarded and closed many people are in this world on any given day. About how alone you can feel walking around in this world, because most everyone is so self-absorbed. On some days, almost no one even bothers to say hello. Did Fanny’s blindness just make it easier for her to feel the isolation that all of us can so easily struggle with?

And the solution? It is the chorus:

Home come on home
Ye who are weary come home
Softly and tenderly calling
Home come on home

God is calling to us. There is a larger story and we are right smack in the middle of it. There was a beginning, when our ancestors lived with God in that home, a perfect home. And while we don’t remember it, “we” all chose to leave that home, thinking we knew better, thinking we could make our way in the world without God and that we would be happier if we did. But we were wrong. And so, the only solution? To come back “home,” where the Father has always been waiting.

Looking forward to working our way through this song. Thinking it will very much be worth it.

Next time,
Sam